


Intermezzo

by carmenta



Category: Royalty RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 01:39:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carmenta/pseuds/carmenta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Royal weddings are always the perfect opportunity for gossip, and this one is no exception.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intermezzo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rekishi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rekishi/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Twice in a Blue Moon](https://archiveofourown.org/works/135479) by [carmenta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/carmenta/pseuds/carmenta). 
  * Inspired by [The Ties That Bind: Sheer Luck and the Sympathy of Others](https://archiveofourown.org/works/133828) by [rekishi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rekishi/pseuds/rekishi). 
  * Inspired by [Marginalia: of Chickens, Lube and Feather Boas](https://archiveofourown.org/works/92816) by [carmenta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/carmenta/pseuds/carmenta). 



> This ties in with the [Young, Hot and Royal](http://archiveofourown.org/series/2801) series
> 
> Disclaimer: This is real person slash. I want to stress that this is a work of fiction and that all portrayals of real persons are completely fictional interpretations with no relation to reality. I claim no insight into their lives or characters. All future events portrayed in the story are, of course, purely fictional; past events on public record have been used where fitting the story and have been fictionalized accordingly. I intend no harm or insult with this story; no profit is being made.
> 
> To sum it up: this is amateur fiction, not clairvoyance. I'm making this up.
> 
> All real persons obviously belong to themselves, and yes, it's fiction, totally fiction.

As royal weddings went, this one was small enough to be an almost familial affair. Princess Beatrice might be the next realistic heir to the crown of England after Wills, but she was far enough down the line that nobody was going to make much of an official fuss about her. None of the European kings and queens - save, of course, Queen Elizabeth II in her capacity as the bride's grandmother - were in attendance, and while all the currently and formerly reigning houses had sent representatives, they'd gone mostly for the spare heirs.

Her Royal Highness Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark surveyed the assembled crowd in the central ball room of Windsor Castle, suppressed a grimace when she spotted Cousin Mary of Denmark, and knocked back the rest of her wine with a toss of her head.

"Planning on drinking someone under the table tonight?" Madde asked, casting her an amused sidelong glance.

Theodora contemplated her empty glass. "Possibly," she said. "Depends on whether anyone dares."

"One would think they all know better than to try by now." Madeleine's look turned curious as she looked her up and down. "I still don't understand where you put it. But I guess that's what makes all the guys forget that they are no match for you."

"In more than just that way." Theodora gave a cheerful wave across the room to Harry, who looked back in startled alarm, the same reaction he tended to show his wife whenever Alex treated him to one of her mildly concerned frowns. Those frowns were all it had ever taken to really tame England's wild child prince, and as far as Theodora could tell, the domestication had really stuck by now after a few initial incidents. There were a lot fewer pictures of him showing his underwear these days. Or showing that he wasn't wearing any, for that matter.

A hand on Theodora's elbow, Madeleine slowly steered her towards the bar set up in a corner to keep the attending guests from suffering empty glasses. "I still think it would have been highly amusing to see you actually date one of them," she said, then briefly turned away towards the bartender to request refills for both of them.

"I did," Theodora said and deftly seized her fresh glass of Chablis.

Madeleine chuckled. "Guillaume doesn't count. Unless you two got up to a lot more than everybody thinks you did?"

"He's always been a perfect gentleman," Theodora said with exaggerated decorum. "Our love knew no boundaries."

"Didn't stop him from shagging Amedeo behind your back, though," Madde commented dryly. "Or rather, even before you two ever pretended to start dating. Did you know that he was gay from the beginning?"

It was Theodora's turn to chuckle at the memory. "Andrea filled me in. And Guillaume very reluctantly outed himself on our third lunch date because he thought I was about to drag him off to bed to have my wicked way with him."

She still wasn't certain what had given him the idea at the time; she'd been perfectly nice and charming, but nothing more, but Guillaume had nonetheless interpreted it as an imminent threat for his virtue. And quite aside from that, he was far too polite and considerate to let her think a relationship was serious when he was using her as a shield, more than anything else.

A grin on her face, Madeleine sipped at her wine. "I hope you at least pretended to be shocked and sympathetic."

"Actually, I told him that I'd known from the start and that he shouldn't flatter himself thinking that he was so irresistible. And once he got over the shock, I suggested he'd better see about getting laid if he was that fixated on people wanting to climb into bed with him." She shrugged. "As though I could have known that he was already doing naughty things to Amedeo at the time."

"More like the other way around," Madeleine remarked. "Because, really... Guillaume and naughty things don't go together, but with Amedeo it's another case altogether."

Nodding, Theodora looked around. "Where are they, anyway? I thought I saw them earlier."

Looking as well, Madeleine shrugged after a few seconds of futile searching. "Naughty things? Might as well check the laundry closets."

"Surely they wouldn't?"

Madeleine raised an eyebrow and delicately sipped at her Bloody Mary. "You know that Guillaume has been on a trade meeting since last weekend and they met up here, right? And you must have noticed that those two seem to find it hard to spend one night apart, let alone eight."

Theodora paused. "Point taken," she said, then flashed Madeleine an evil grin. "I suddenly feel an urgent need to talk to our dear Hereditary Grand Duke and his esteemed Prince Consort. Want to help me look for them?"

"As though I don't get to see enough of that sort of friskiness whenever Calle and Wills come to visit. Besides, I'm not sure how Guillaume would deal with knowing that I've seen him naked."

He'd most likely keel over in a dead faint and spend the next three decades in mortified unease whenever he crossed her path. For someone who regularly spent summer weekends in the presence of Andrea, who thought nothing about dropping his clothes when he changed into swimming trunks, Guillaume still was amazingly easy to embarrass.

"You're right, we'd need a few days to coax him out from under the bed again," she said. "Ah well. I've already seen Amedeo naked, that's going to have to be enough."

Madeleine cocked her head in amusement. "And?"

Theodora smirked back through a mouthful of wine and swallowed. "Let's just say that Guillaume has no reason to complain," she said and saw Madeleine's curious expression. "The wedding of Wills and Carl. He got just slightly drunk and needed someone to topple him into bed. Those gala uniforms are highly uncomfortable to sleep in."

"And you were helpful? How very kind of you." They exchanged a look, and it was impossible to keep from laughing despite their best attempts to maintain a serious demeanour.

"Having fun, you two?" Tatiana asked as she stepped up to them, and Theodora willingly made room for the newest member to the royal circle. She'd been on good terms with Tatiana before thanks to their mutual acquaintances and their occasional encounters at parties and events, and it was easy to now move that casual friendship into a more formal and official setting.

Sometimes she wondered what Tatiana thought of it all, considering that she'd never given the slightest indication that she was interested in a title, let alone marriage to a monarch. But unless something drastic happened, she'd eventually end up as the wife of the next Prince of Monaco as soon as Andrea could no longer escape his fate. So far, she seemed to be taking it in stride, and Theodora kept her fingers crossed that this wouldn't change. She was fond of Andrea, very fond, but there was no denying that he desperately needed a stable, well-grounded and down-to-earth person by his side to keep him anchored and focused.

"Plenty of fun," Madeleine told her. "We were just debating the merits of Amedeo's naked arse."

Tatiana quirked an eyebrow. "Too scrawny," she said, then leaned forward to request a glass of water from the bartender.

"You're one to talk, Andrea isn't that much better." Theodora glanced at the water, then at her own wine and Madeleine's Bloody Mary. "Up to something again, are you?"

Tatiana briefly looked confused, then laughed. "Not as far as I know," she said with a grin. "But if you jump to those conclusions, then I'm going to have to walk past Andrea with my water glass. He's starting to forget that he was involved in the production of Stefano, it would do him good to remember that pregnancies can always happen."

Especially when you were a Casiraghi, or married to one. That family had an amazing knack for falling pregnant at inconvenient times, and weddings with the bride in maternity clothes seemed the norm rather than the exception. Theodora was just curious to see whether Charlotte would keep up the family history or manage the rare feat of getting married without the faintly green tinge of impending morning sickness around her nose.

"Best keep him on his toes," Madeleine agreed. "Men are so much easier to handle when they're worried that you might send them out to hunt down chocolate mousse in the middle of the night."

Theodora glanced at her, then pointedly looked down at her belly, hidden behind the flowing lengths of a dove grey dress. "Planning something?"

Madeleine laughed. "Not right now," she said. "And I don't think anyone else is up to something at the moment, either."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Tatiana sipped at her water, then reached out to steal Theodora's glass for a mouthful of wine.

Theodora frowned at her, both for the outrageous liberty and for the secrecy. "Who?" she asked. "Surely not Anna again, she's had three kids in four years, she's got to be ready for a break."

"Can't blame her for wanting to shag Félix senseless at every opportunity she gets," Madeleine murmured.

Tatiana glanced at her. "A bit young for you, isn't he? And you both are married, in case it slipped your mind."

"Two years younger, that's nothing. And I know and I'm hardly going to snatch him and shove him into the nearest broom closet, but everybody's allowed to look."

"I'll be the last to protest," Tatiana assured her.

Madeleine nudged her. "So who's got a bun in the oven?"

Tatiana looked around for listeners, then lowered her voice even when nobody was near enough to overhear. "I don't know for sure, of course, but Alexandra has been puking her guts out. Guillaume's sister, that is, not Harry's wife."

Theodora didn't know which prospect was scarier.

"Alexandra? You're sure?" Madeleine suddenly looked gleeful. "I've got to make sure I'm there when Guillaume hears of it, he'll fall over from sheer shock that somebody dared to despoil his sister."

Tatiana grinned. "Not just someone, either, if nothing's changed there in the last month or two. That's really going to be fun once those two figure out that they might as well confess now."

"Those two?" Theodora prompted, but only received an enigmatic smirk in return. "All right, we'll find out soon enough."

"I daresay you will," Tatiana agreed. "They'd better make sure Guillaume's thoroughly shagged out when he hears the news, though. Might make it easier on everybody if he doesn't have the energy to get too upset."

Theodora gave her a mock frown for the teasing, her thoughts idly working through possibilities. It wasn't too easy, however; on the one hand there weren't too many men among the high nobility who were still single and of the right age, assuming that Alexandra had gone for one of them, but on the other hand none of them would really make for a scandal.

"Anything we can do to help?" Madeleine asked. Alexandra was not part of the inner circle among their generation of royals, but she was well-liked and nobody was going to hesitate about offering a helping hand.

Tatiana shook her head. "Nothing immediate. Alex is with her for now, she'll keep an eye on the girl and figure out whether it's a baby or a spoiled tuna sandwich that makes her queasy."

The advantages of having a thoroughly trained doctor around: as Harry's wife, Alex was the perfect source for medical advice when you didn't want to risk anyone blabbing or a paparazzi getting a shot of you coming out of a clinic.

"Looks like it could be our first wedding for the next year," Madeleine said. "I doubt they'll let her emulate Louis and have the child before settling the marriage matter. Uncle Henri really isn't having an easy time with his children, is he? First Louis gets Tessy pregnant out of wedlock, then Guillaume falls for another man and interrupts the line of succession, Félix almost ends up with an illegitimate child as well, and now Alexandra - "

"If there's something coming," Tatiana interrupted her.

"Sure, if. But if there is, then we'd better hope for the sake of Henri's peace of mind that at least Sebastien ends up all conventional and heterosexual and doesn't get up to anything permanent before the church blessing."

Thinking of the reactions of Luxembourg's Grand Ducal Couple to their children's antics so far, Theodora couldn't help waving her hand in dismissal. "I'm sure he'd prefer it if one of the kids manages to cater to conventions, but I don't think he's going to lose any sleep over it. Guillaume was the biggest issue, and Henri and María Teresa took that one really well." It had helped, of course, that as long as you ignored his gender, Amedeo essentially was the best possible match for Guillaume. Impeccable pedigree, training as a royal heir and the determination to put it into practise and, last but not least, stubbornness to outmatch Guillaume's own when it came to a battle of wills between them. Throw in an uterus and he'd have made for the perfect princess; under the circumstances, Félix and Anna had simply been roped into helping out with the heir business. Henri had taken it all in stride with nary a complaint, which was much more than what could be said about some other royal parents.

"How are Wills and Carl doing?" Tatiana asked, almost echoing her thoughts. "They've been visiting with you last week, haven't they? Andrea hasn't managed to catch them on the phone."

Madeleine nodded. "They came over to Stockholm for Vicky's name day," she confirmed. "A few days without any duties, just family get-togethers... Personally I'd say it's done them a world of good. Carl's been getting better at handling the press attention, but I don't think he'll ever be good at it. And Wills... he hasn't said anything directly, but I think he needed a chance to get away from his father, and it always settles him down when he can spend some time away from the sniping."

Theodora gave her a curious look. "I thought the cottage was supposed to take care of that?" It was the latest project of these two and, she had to agree, a stroke of genius: their own cottage in Scotland, safely on the land of the Commonwealth but away from the immediate pressure of London and, even more importantly, a few hundred kilometres away from Charles. Distance which was highly important at times for their peace of mind, what with the frequent clashes between Wills and his father. Theodora had witnessed a few and had been given second-hand accounts of even more of them, and she found it almost impossible to understand why Wills and Carl were putting up with it.

"It gets them out of the way if the distance between Clarence House and York House isn't enough, but sometimes leaving the country makes it simpler." Madeleine sighed quietly. "One of these days Vicky and I are going to give Charles a piece of our minds. The man may be the next King of England, but that doesn't mean he should show Carl and Wills such disregard. Be what may, Wills is still his son."

Not an argument which counted for much with Charles. It didn't help Harry either.

"Speak of the devil," Tatiana murmured, nodding her chin in the direction behind Theodora, who turned around curiously and saw Wills come towards them, a slightly nervous smile on his face. Behind him, Carl was standing together with Guillaume, Andrea and Amedeo, casually pretending not to ogle his husband's arse, even though the tight-hugging uniform Wills was wearing practically invited an appreciative look.

"Ladies," Wills murmured as he reached them, holding himself a little too stiffly with caution, almost as though he thought Tatiana, Madeleine and Theodora posed a treat. "Enjoying yourselves?"

"It's a nice party," Tatiana said and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek which lingered a little too long to be called purely friendly for anyone but her. "But I have a complaint, you evil un-phoning you. We were getting worried!"

Wills sheepishly ducked his head. From across the room, the ohers were openly observing now, almost as though they were waiting to seee whether anything happened to the inofficial leader of their little group. "Time flies?" he offered. "We didn't do it on purpose."

"No," Tatiana allowed kindly, "you had other things on your mind. Have you convinced Andrea yet that everything is fine?"

Chuckling, Wills nodded. "We've let him hang on to us a little longer than usual, too," he said. "I don't know if I've told you yet, but he _is_ a bit strange about that."

Tatiana waved off. "He only does it when he likes you," she said. "And it's not like he's only snuggling up to you, he tries with other friends as well."

"He does," Theodora confirmed. "Confuses the hell out of the paps whenever he cuddles up to me and Tatiana stands right next to us and pets him." It was almost a miracle nobody had ever speculated whether that was a sign of something else between the three of them, but perhaps even the media sharks could tell that this was about another matter entirely.

Madeleine glanced at her, then at Wills. "He's never tried with me," she said.

Tatiana grinned. "Because he is scared of you. Don't worry, he likes you just fine. If you want to cuddle with him, just grab him when he's in reach, that might cure him of some of his wariness where you are concerned."

"I haven't done anything to him!"

"No, you just barked at him one time too many," Tatiana said mildly. "Don't worry about it, he simply pegged you as too formidable to take a risk. With Guillaume it's similar, only Andrea doesn't take him nearly as seriously, so he's teasing instead of showing respect."

"If you put it like that..."

Tatiana sipped at her water. "No reason to worry," she repeated. "Hey, Wills?"

The man in question gave her an attentive look. "Yes?"

"Would you mind coming down to Monaco this weekend or the next? Andrea could really use your company for a bit."

Theodora glanced over at the group of men, where Andrea was leaning against Carl, one arm slung around his waist, body language too complex to make it a simple gesture of friendship.

"Sure," Wills agreed readily, and Theodora suspected that he'd seen it too. There was very little which escaped him when it came to the well-being of his friends; sometimes he reminded her of a sheep dog with a slightly demented flock, only content when everything was well. It would make him a good king one day, she thought. "We meant to ask, do you all want to come back to York House with us? We figure the reception is going to wind down soon, now that Bea is gone."

"A little late already, isn't it?" Madeleine asked. "It's past midnight."

Wills shrugged. "We'll let you nap in one of the guest rooms?" he offered. "But I don't know when the next opportunity will come for all of us to see each other, and you can see how desperately Andrea is already clinging. And Amedeo's been insisting that he needs to take every chance he can get to convince Guillaume that playing with his peer group is nice."

The three of them looked at each other, and Theodora frowned deeply as she pretended to consider. "All right," she agreed. "Purely for the sake of Andrea and Guillaume, of course."

Wills gave her an amused look. "Of course," he said and offered her his arm. "What other reasons could there be, after all?"

She glanced at the other girls, then at the quartet of princes and almost-princes. Her friends, who knew the difficulties and peculiarities of her life so much better than anyone else could and who'd always offer her a spot to crash if she ever needed it.

"Why indeed?" she asked with a smile, linking her arm with that of Wills and allowing him to lead the way.


End file.
